Documents / FOIA release
/specialCollection/MissileGap/1992/1992-04-01.pdf
Central Intelligence Agency · 406 pages · text from the file's own layer
This is a CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, published in Washington in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974, which developed and flew the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It traces the U-2's development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers on 1 May 1960, and later operations. One section is titled U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK.
“Nevers”24 pages
- p. 13 …Without their help a good deal of this story could never have
become known. The assistance…
- p. 44 …the CL-282; in fact, there may never have been
a formal decision as such. In…
- p. 74 …fly, Lockheed engineers had to solve
problems never before encountered. Among these problems was the
need…
- p. 84 …Flight tests continued, with the U-2 ascending to alti-
tudes never before attained in sustained…
- p. 102 …put aside for further thought
(which it never received), and Bissell's weather research cover re…
- p. 138 …Then in January 1960, the commander of Detachment B,
raised an important question that had never…
- p. 147 …Peninsula, because of bad weather and, therefore, never
entered Soviet airspace. A second attempt to photograph…
- p. 159 …Six of the men on board were
killed and the remaining 11 were never heard from…
- p. 160 …Although this new Berlin crisis never became as threatening
as the blockade of 1948-49, President…
- p. 165 …The Air Force never equipped its orig-
inal U-2s with the J75 engines."
Detachment C…
- p. 189 …Powers never made it past Sverdlovsk. Four and a half hours into
the mission, an SA…
- p. 208 …very
good reason, and such a situation never developed, in part because
satellite photography gradually began…
- p. 210 …Since this never happened, Francis Gary Powers' flight on I
May 1960 proved to be the…
- p. 223 …Responsibility for photo-
graphic coverage of Cuba remained with the Air Force; Agency pilots
never flew…
- p. 264 Sratrt.11/Qt2.1....31■1
Chapter 5
251
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
There was never another Agency…
- p. 290 …the OXCART aircraft for its own use. never adopted the laminated
vertical stabilizers.'4
THE OXCART…
- p. 294 …Scott employed concepts never be-
fore used in camera systems. These included the use of a…
- p. 298 …As it turned out, the J58 was
never used in a Navy aircraft.
OSA History. chap…
- p. 299 …This new delay was caused by leaking fuel tanks, a problem
that would never be solved…
- p. 313 …even
though the SKYLARK contingency plan was never put into effect.
Since U-2s continued to…
- p. 316 …Moreover, the Soviets never operated the radars in the tracking and
locktin modes, a fact that…
- p. 326 …collector of strategic intelligence, the
OXCART was never used for this purpose. Its brief deployment was…
- p. 328 …Yet, the President never went so far
as to eliminate the overflight program. As Commander in…
- p. 333 …its speed and altitude have never been equaled. The development of
this aircraft also led to…
(012958 1.13Idli1l>101010<25Yrs
(S)
research results were tested by another firm known as
Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier (EG&G), which was also composed
of MIT faculty members. Under an Air Force contract to evaluate ra-
dars, EG&G operated a small testing facility
Although Kell))naa peen
closely involved with the radar deception project since its early days,
he cooperated reluctantly because he disliked adding attachments that
made his aircraft less airworthy. (Johnson's dislike of the antiradar at-
tachments was reflected in the unofficial nickname for aircraft that
had been so modified—"dirty birds.") After Lockheed mechanics
had mounted the various RAINBOW devices on the prototype U-2, a
Lockheed test pilot would fly the plane over EG&G's1
installation. This was little more than a series of rAuar sets ana a
trailer containing instrumentation. EG&G technicians could thus re-
cord and evaluate the U-2's radar returns as it traversed a specified
course over their facility!'
This method of testing radar-deceptive modifications proved
both time consuming and dangerous. During a test flight on 2 April
1957, the -wallpaper" modification acted as insulation around the
not far from
" References to EG&G programs for the U-2 are contained in the later Convair contracts
for Projects FISH and KINGFISH, OSA records 'TS Codeword).
ret
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About this file
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.